Lebanon Seeks Direct Talks With Israel to End Hezbollah Fighting
A fire burns at the site of a collapsed building following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 9.
Source: AFP/Getty Images
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for internationally mediated direct negotiations with Israel and a truce that would halt Israeli attacks on his country and extricate it from yet another Middle East conflict.
Israel has been carrying out deadly strikes across Lebanon for a week, including in the capital Beirut, after the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah attacked the Jewish state to, it said, avenge the killing of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israeli military operation has thus far killed at least 486 people and injured more than 1,300, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, citing the nation’s Health Ministry.